Imogen Cotter is set for her first major challenge with Team Movistar this weekend when she is set to line out at Canyon Pirinexus Challenge. The event, run over terrain in both Spain and France, takes place on Saturday and is 340km in length, with 2,500 metres of climbing in one 70km section.
“I’m still pinching myself that it’s happened to be honest,” Cotter told stickybottle. “When I got onto the Movistar e-team I dreamed of wearing their kit outdoors.
“So to actually be representing them and to have earned
the right to wear the Movistar kit in a real life setting ,and not just Zwift, is a dream come true.”
The Co Clare rider made her Ireland debut on the road this year in France and competed in the green of Ireland again at Rás na mBan. While she had never done an ultra endurance race before, she felt she had prepared solidly.
Advertisement
Related News
“I’ve been really training well the last six
weeks. I changed coaches and they have helped me adjust my training. So I’m
still hitting the intervals I need for race intensity, but I’m also getting in
the longer hours and intervals for the
endurance side of things,” she said.
“Mentally
it’s going to be a big ask too - 340km is a long time. And I know it won’t be easy. So I’ve been getting mentally prepared for it too.”
Cotter added she had worked with her new coaches – at Dig Deep – to set out a detailed nutrition plan for the event, which would prove vital. The Canyon Pirinexus Challenge takes participants over the Pirinexus loop, which starts and finishes in Girona and includes the Eastern part of the French and Spanish Pyrenees in the Catalan region.
This year’s event is the sixth edition and it forms part of the Sea Otter Europe festival, which Movistar and its bike sponsor Canyon are heavily involved in. About 80km of the route is on the French side of the border and the remainder is located in Spain. Cotter (28) will tackle the mixed terrain event on a Canyon Grail.
An ultra endurance multi terrain event rather than a
race, the challenge gets underway at 6am and with a cut off time at midnight on
Saturday; or 18 hours to go the full distance.
Topics
